It's no act: 'Annie' orphans helping Children's Shelter

"We wanted to show how much we appreciate what we have," said Kaitlyn Dutton, standing at left.

Photo By Michael Miller/Freelance

FOR SA LIFE - Olivia Silva, 8, playing Molly, right, performs with Tess Acosta, 16, center, and Ava Schweninger, 13, playing Pepper, during a dress rehearsal of Annie at the San Pedro Playhouse on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. MICHAEL MILLER / FOR THE EXPRESS-NEWS

Photo By Michael Miller/Freelance

They may not take those at the Children's Shelter from rags to riches, but the actresses in "Annie" at the San Pedro Playhouse hope to make the holidays a bit brighter with their fundraiser.

As the girls playing orphans in the Playhouse production of "Annie" dug into their parts, the idea of what it would mean to have no parents and no place to live started to hit home.

"I have a very supportive family," Ava Schweninger said. "I don't know what it would be like to not have that, especially at Christmas."

"The thought of having nobody that wants you or loves you is hard," Emily Garrett said.

And so, when some of the parents working behind the scenes on the show suggested that the girls help San Antonio children in that circumstance, they agreed right away.

"We wanted to show how much we appreciate what we have," Kaitlyn Dutton said. "Not a lot of people get to be in a show."

The girls, who range in age from 7 to 16, decided a fundraiser benefiting the Children's Shelter would be the way to go. Mom Mylene Mackey, whose daughter Maya is in the show and who has worked as a counselor there, had talked to the cast members about what life is like for those children, and the girls wanted to help them out.

After a brief flirtation with selling lockets similar to the one Annie wears in the show, they decided instead to go with small stuffed dogs à la Annie's trusty pooch, Sandy.

As it happens, the dogs that the parents tracked down to sell are orphans themselves. They originally were supposed to be sold alongside a book about a blind dog that rescued a child from drowning, Mackey said. When the book project fell apart, the manufacturer was stuck with 1,000 stuffed blind dogs.

"He gave them to us really, really cheap," she said.

The parents and kids then set about stitching little eyes into the dogs' faces.

"They were our 'Amazing Grace' dogs," Mackey said. "They were blind, and now they can see."

The dog are selling for $5 a pop. The girls made posters enticing patrons; at Friday's opening performance, the moms took care of the actual salesmanship.

At the end of the night, a few kiddoes in the audience left cuddling the little yellow dogs. Sales got off to a slow start: About a dozen had sold by the curtain call, mom Shawnie Dutton said.

She attributed the low sales figure partly to the fact that they were working far from the better-trafficked side of the lobby where the concessions are sold. Her son agreed that the location was the problem, she said, though his reasoning was a little different. They were working just a few feet from the men's restroom.